The Basketball Tournament: What to know about $1 million winner-take-all event

The Basketball Tournament is coming to FOX, FS1 and FS2 after a multi-year agreement was announced on Thursday.

It's a unique summertime basketball event that is highly competitive, undoubtedly in no small part due to the $1 million prize that goes to the winning team. To help you prepare for TBT, here is a primer.

What is TBT?

The Basketball Tournament (TBT) is a 64-team, open-application, single-elimination tournament played across the U.S. each summer since 2014. Now in its 11th year, TBT has paid out more than $13M in prize money to 10 champions over the years. 

Previous TBT champions have included college alumni teams from Notre Dame, Syracuse, Marquette, Ohio State, and the University of Buffalo. Overseas Elite, which featured CJ McCollum's brother Errick, was a four-time defending champion from 2015-18 and at one point had a 29-0 record in the event. 

TBT is also the original home of the Elam Ending, the alternate ending to basketball games previously seen in the NBA All-Star Game, and currently utilized in G League overtime and other events across the globe.

What's the Elam Ending?

Designed to preserve a more natural end-of-game finish, the Elam Ending® calls for the game clock to be shut off in the fourth quarter. A Target Score is set by adding 8 points to the leading team’s score. The first team to reach the Target Score wins. For example, if the score is 80-72, the Target Score becomes 88. The first team to reach 88 wins. Once the game clock is eliminated, trailing teams are allowed to focus on getting stops, rather than preventing the clock from running out. This results in great defense and pure basketball possessions all the way to the end.

After testing the format in 2017, The Basketball Tournament